My 7 year old son and I traveled with neighbors on the Dawn Princess for a 10 day Alaska cruise round-trip out of San Francisco. Since we live in San Francisco we took a cab to the pier. We arrived shortly after 12:00 and embarkation was easy and quick. We had lunch at the Horizon Court and spent the rest of the day exploring the ship. Our cabin: I must confess this was the smallest cabin that I have stayed in. However, for my son and I it was completely adequate and storage was fine. Two adults would have been tight.The balcony was built into the ship and has a large window as opposed to an open balcony. It was also tiny. I think it was worth having the balcony-there is nothing like stepping out and seeing where you are first thing in the morning. Also hearing the waves at night is wonderful. One night I watched a sunset with whales spouting in the sea. Still the small balcony not a very good value and I would not cruise on the Dawn Princess because of it. The cabin was very clean and the steward Darwin was great. He always brought cookies at the end of the day for my son. The bathroom was so tiny it was difficult to maneuver. I think a large person might have serious difficulty. The public rooms: I really liked the decor on the ship and there are plenty of nice spaces for reading and hanging out. This actually exceeded my expectations. I especially like the area by the patisserie for a cappuccino and a window seat.

Dining: We had serious problems with "Anytime Dining" which doesn't mean anytime at all. It means whenever is convenient for them for you to eat. We had requested second seating when we booked 7 months before but were never able to confirm it. Our friend had to call every morning at 8:00am to get a reservation and even then the times we wanted were not available. The day we were in port before 8:00am we could not get reservations. One day we showed up and the reservation had not been logged. I would not sail on Princess again without a confirmed seating. I mean who wants to get up every morning on vacation at 8:00am in order to get an reservation for a time you don't even want???? The food in the dining room was good. Service was spotty because you have a different waiter every night and they don't have to really build up a relationship with you (and there is automatic gratuities). We had maybe 2 bad waiters 6 ok and one really great waitress Florentina who actually explained things on the menu. The food at the Horizon Court was typical buffet food and burgers by the pool dependable. The Kids Zone program was awesome. I would cruise again on Princess again because it was so great for my son (and me). He did crafts and had movies and parties and two dinners and a pajama party. My son went every time it was open and almost cried when it ended. The pile of his crafts by the end of the week was huge. Unfortunately, the video arcade games were way too violent !!!

I needed to use the medical clinic and they were awesome. I got great treatment and prescriptions-the Doctor was great and the clinic staff friendly.It was also very reasonably priced. Notes on ports: Ketchikan was fun. We chartered a cab/van for two hours and went to the Totem Bight state park which is fantastic. Then the driver took us to a local waterfall and a by a stream to see the salmon running. The local knowledge was priceless. In Sitka we did the Otter Quest Wildlife boat tour. It was wonderful and we saw otters, eagles and tons of whales, In Juneau we went to the Dog Sled Summer which was fantastic and gold panning which was fun for my son. Tracy Arm was beautiful and worth getting up at 5:00am. Victoria had lots to do and not enough time. Thats it in general-overall it was a great trip and we have booked our next one (with second seating confirmed)